What We Do

Student Loans Company works with Local Authorities in Wales, the Student Awards Agency for Scotland, the Education and Library boards in Northern Ireland, Higher Education Institutions and HM Revenue & Customs, to provide student support in the UK.

Paying and collecting

  • we pay loans and grants to students
  • we pay tuition fees to colleges and universities
  • we work with HM Revenue and Customs to collect loan repayments
  • we collect repayments on 'mortgage style' loans issued before 1998
  • we make maintenance payments to school pupils aged over 16 in Northern Ireland and Wales
  • we pay bursaries and scholarships on behalf of universities and colleges
  • we run all the administration and processing associated with these activities

Who we help

For most students in the UK we provide loans to help cover their living costs, as well as loans for their tuition fees. We pay the maintenance loans directly into their bank accounts at the start of each term, (monthly for students in Scotland) and the tuition fees direct to their college or university.

In 2010/11, we paid out £5.5 billion in loans and grants to more than 1.3 million customers throughout the UK and £2.7 billion in tuition fees to colleges and universities. And in partnership with HMRC, we collected £1.3 billion in repayments from customers mainly from the 9/10 tax year.

Products and Services

Our core function is to provide financial support to students across the UK, but there are differences in the way this is administered in the four countries of the UK. This is because England, Northern Ireland, Wales and Scotland have separate policies on student finance. We also support students from European Union countries.